Waffell Web Solutions - anybody know how to contact/what is going on?

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zkarj

36 posts

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#20225 17-Mar-2008 11:54

Hi all,

I am desperate! I have multiple sites hosted with Waffell (waffell.com), a NZ based company that I have been using since 2004, who have servers in the US.

All my websites have been off air since Saturday morning and I cannot get anybody to respond to me. I have commercial sites caught up in this and am getting worried they've disappeared.

I have emailed every address I know of theirs. Their support address bounces, their helpdesk is non-functioning (license expiry error), they have no phone numbers and the phone number in the WhoIs information is not active. Interestingly the other addresses I have tried have not bounced.

I can traceroute to their server on which my domains are hosted and have worked out who I believe to be their host (based on the traceroute) and spoken to them - they say no general issues at their end.

I've searched Google and on companies register under "Waffell", "Online Web Solutions", "Nicholas Wood" and "Matthew McClue", all to no avail.

I am hoping someone in the Geekzone community knows someone or can think of what other steps I can take to at least find out what is going on.

Thanks in advance.

Allister Jenks.

PS. I have located at least one other site I believe to be hosted by Waffell and it, too, is off the air. (Thanks Google cache!)

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BDFL - Memuneh
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#117114 17-Mar-2008 12:15

I would start taking measures to move DNS records and sites' contents to another provider.

xpd

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#117135 17-Mar-2008 13:47

From their own website

Our full contact details are below:
Online Web Solutions
210 / 8 Ronayne Street
Parnell
Auckland

PO Box 105-050
Auckland 1030
Ph:

021 529 375

BTW : Online Web Solutions (1 director being Matthew McClue) was struck off the companies registar in 2004 by the looks of things.

All found on their own site or the companies database. (companies.govt.nz)

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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zkarj

36 posts

Geek

#117148 17-Mar-2008 14:47

Thanks for the info.

I hadn't actually spotted that info on their site but already knew all but the street address. The number given yields a recorded message saying it is "not active". And yes, I had seen the company was struck off some time ago. Not directly a concern seeing as they were clearly still operating in some form up until at least 2nd March when I last had comms from them.

zkarj

36 posts

Geek

#117171 17-Mar-2008 16:14

Mercifully, my sites are now back online.

Thanks again to those who chipped in.

freitasm

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#117175 17-Mar-2008 16:22

Back online? Good. But did they ever reply to your contacts I would still look for some othe hosting company with faster services.

stu28

273 posts

Ultimate Geek

#117546 19-Mar-2008 15:51

zkarj if you have any other issues with them, let me know as I may be able to help

zkarj

36 posts

Geek

#117659 19-Mar-2008 22:10

Later that evening I entered a helpdesk ticket (they obviously got that working again) demanding a response. I got a techie respond saying he was passing it on to management. It's now been 48 hours since that response with nothing further. So I just entered a prod.

I have scoped out an alternative host which has a similar low pricing structure, but which promotes their uptime as a feature. We'll see.

Sharesies kids

Free kids accounts - trade shares and funds (NZ, US) with Sharesies (affiliate link).

webwat

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#118952 27-Mar-2008 00:41

I would look at hosting in NZ, if any problems at least you are more likely to find out whats going on in a timely manner. There are 1 or 2 providers that can do NZ-based budget hosting, and I noticed some IT firms advertising on this site. If you own the server then you might have a few more options too I guess. Just watch out how reliable it is, ADSL connections are not really up to it being only a "best efforts" service.

Time to find a new industry!

digitaldream

62 posts

Master Geek

#119392 28-Mar-2008 18:41

I would have to disagree with you webwat.

I have found that hosts in the United States:

Handle things professionally
Tend to be more reliable
Offer better value for money
Offer reasonable latencies all over the world
Tend to be bigger companies and often have better equipment

I would only go for a New Zealand host if I had a busy, heavy website that is only intended for NZ traffic.

Instead of handling with a middleman, I would contact US hosts directly.
I am willing to help if needed.

zocster

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#119403 28-Mar-2008 19:43

webwat: I would look at hosting in NZ, if any problems at least you are more likely to find out whats going on in a timely manner. There are 1 or 2 providers that can do NZ-based budget hosting, and I noticed some IT firms advertising on this site. If you own the server then you might have a few more options too I guess. Just watch out how reliable it is, ADSL connections are not really up to it being only a "best efforts" service.

Sorry not take the attention away from this forum ... but here is a good place to go to for looking up good/bad hosts with members reviews etc of their experience hope this helps.

stu28

273 posts

Ultimate Geek

#119422 28-Mar-2008 21:00

zocster:
webwat: I would look at hosting in NZ, if any problems at least you are more likely to find out whats going on in a timely manner. There are 1 or 2 providers that can do NZ-based budget hosting, and I noticed some IT firms advertising on this site. If you own the server then you might have a few more options too I guess. Just watch out how reliable it is, ADSL connections are not really up to it being only a "best efforts" service.

Sorry not take the attention away from this forum ... but here is a good place to go to for looking up good/bad hosts with members reviews etc of their experience hope this helps.

That site is only usefull for Hosts in the USA.

zocster

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#119440 28-Mar-2008 22:07

Yes sorry I should have mentioned that I was simply agreeing to the post by digitaldream

zkarj

36 posts

Geek

#119446 28-Mar-2008 22:20

digitaldream: I would have to disagree with you webwat.

I have found that hosts in the United States:
Handle things professionally
Tend to be more reliable
Offer better value for money
Offer reasonable latencies all over the world
Tend to be bigger companies and often have better equipment
I would only go for a New Zealand host if I had a busy, heavy website that is only intended for NZ traffic.

Instead of handling with a middleman, I would contact US hosts directly.
I am willing to help if needed.

When I first started in '99 I had a US based host and I left them because they were useless in dealing with issues. Still, that's a LONG time ago now and was only one player.

If you have any recommendations I'm all ears. I scoped out a local one I was willing to give a try with a new domain but I found it impossible to sign up with them! As in, I went through filling out all the forms and the net result was I could not log in. I did it FOUR times in a row so I know exactly what I was typing. Bad sign!

Basically, good uptime, 24x7 support with reasonable response times. I.e. I won't mark all my calls as urgent, but if I do I expect them to jump. That and CPanel and I'm probably happy. I'm also thinking that CPanel may make for an easy migration as it appears to offer a 'host-shifting' total backup option. Not looked into it yet, but that's the way it reads.

digitaldream

62 posts

Master Geek

#119456 28-Mar-2008 22:48

I have been with Hostgator for over a year now, running close to 30 websites.

I have not had any problems.
They provide the latest cPanel with quite a few addons.
Support via chat is very quick and generally helpful even if the problem is not caused by them.

Depending on the size of your websites I could also make you an account on my reseller for $6NZ per month, in which case I will help you move everything over.

It is up to you.

zkarj

36 posts

Geek

#119521 29-Mar-2008 13:43

digitaldream: I have been with Hostgator for over a year now, running close to 30 websites.

I have not had any problems.
They provide the latest cPanel with quite a few addons.
Support via chat is very quick and generally helpful even if the problem is not caused by them.

Depending on the size of your websites I could also make you an account on my reseller for $6NZ per month, in which case I will help you move everything over.

It is up to you.

Wow! Are my eyes deceiving me or are these plans magnitudes larger than what I am used to for a fraction of the price? My current TOTAL for all my domains is only 1.1Gb and yet their "Hatchling plan" offers over 300x that for 1/10th the price.

If it didn't come with a recommendation I'd be suspicious.

Thanks for the reseller offer, but I'm one of those people who needs to be in control of everything. :-) I think the term is "pedant". 8-)

I'm glad I came to Geekzone on this occasion. :-)

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